Wenger to offer Serie A defender bumper contract to join Arsenal

According to Italian outlet Gazaetta dello Sport, Arsenal are ready to offer Kostas Manolas a bumper contract worth £3.3m per season if he makes the move from Roma this summer.

Arsene Wenger is thought to be looking to bring in another central defender this summer to offer competition to Per Mertesacker and Gabriel as we desperately need a top class partner for Laurent Koscielny next season.

Manolas is a player that’s been on Wenger radar for some time as we were keen when he left Olympiacos back in 2014 and it looks like we’ve now renewed our interest this summer.

The 25-year-old has developed in to one of the best centre-back’s in Italian football over the past two seasons but his future at Roma is in doubt as he’s struggling to agree terms over a new contract extension.

It’s led to speculation that he’ll be on the move over the coming weeks and Gazetta dello Sport claims that Arsenal are willing to offer him a contract worth £3.33m (€4m) per year – which is a huge increase on his current €1.5m-a-year deal.

I’m sure the Greek international would be tempted by the idea of more than doubling his wages but the Italian outlet says that Roma are trying to persuade the defender to evaluate his future in September.

The reason being is that Roma will have played their Champions League qualifier by that point so can assess their squad accordingly, while any move for Manolas before September 1st 2016 will see former club Olympiacos take 50% of any transfer fee.

Obviously Roma are desperate not to lose him this summer as they’d miss out on millions of pounds so it looks like any potential move may have to wait until January.

Roma have already signed defenders Juan Jesus and Nacho, so they appear to be preparing for life without Manolas, but we’ll have to wait and see whether they’ll be able to persuade the Greek star to remain at the club for at least another six months.